7 Ups & 3 Downs From Last Night's NXT (23 Jan)

Ups...

7. Turning Water Into Wine

You're probably sick of hearing this by now, but there's no way on earth that this year's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic should have been - by any measurable metric - good. With no tag team division to speak of, and virtually zero interest in the NXT UK brand, the matches should have felt like an energy-sapping distraction from far more interesting angles.

Without exception*, every single match we've seen has been a banger. The emotional reunion of Kushida and Alex Shelley provided the perfect platform for Grizzled Young Veterans to show they do not care about your script, Pete Dunne and Matt Riddle have emerged as the most entertaining thing in the entire company, and the Undisputed Era/Imperium feud has simultaneously flourished within the tournament while elevating its importance at the same time.

This week gave us two exceptional matches, first between Grizzled Young Veterans and Undisputed Era, and then later with Imperium and the Broserweights. It's hopefully showing WWE that tag team wrestling is not hard to do, and more importantly that the talent is already there. Hopefully they can keep that in mind going forward.

*We don't talk about The Forgotten Sons.